UFC middleweight Chris Leben has been in his share of exciting fights during a seven-year run in the organization, bringing fans to their feet on numerous occasions thanks to his brawling style, fearlessness, and the durability of his chin. However, Leben’s last bout was certainly not amongst the group of his most memorable match-ups.

This past weekend, “The Crippler” suffered a decision loss to Derek Brunson at UFC 155 and never came close to firing off shots with the same frequency as normal. As a result, Leben ended up on his backside a number of times and was unable to put Brunson in any significant trouble.

Leben recently addressed the evening’s affair on Twitter and, rather than give a nod to the better man, offered up a few reasons as to why his performance was so poor.

“I just had a little ring rust,” wrote Leben. “But that being said Derek Brunson is a boring fighter. The times he hit me, I let him just to get him to swing.”

The 32-year old Ultimate Fighter alumnus’ claim of “ring rust” is likely legit considering Leben hadn’t fought in more than a year due to a drug-related suspension. Of course, in fairness to Brunson, he took the tilt on short notice, was looking to snap a two-scrap slide, and had finished seven of the nine opponents he’d beaten previous to the pairing.

Regardless, it appears Leben was far from happy with how things turned out in the bout. Whether that will result in a fired-up Leben the next time he fights or more excuses remains to be seen.

That was some horri-bad ring rust if that’s all that was going on in that fight. Brunson didn’t look good true, but he was on short notice, and Leben had the year off so I would of been surprised if it ended well, but not that poorly. Neither fighter looked good.

I really wouldn’t put too much into either performance. They fought, they got paid, UFC didn’t have to make any drastic changes to a PPV card.

I would wait for both men to fight again after full training camp before making too many judgements. Brunson could improve his cardio a bit and Leben could always work on his take down defense. Kinda of a meh fight, overall.

Leben is on the wrong side of 30, has used hardcore PEDs, has absorbed a lot of damage during his fight career, and is a drug addict. Underneath it all he seems like he might be a pretty good dude, but there’s just no point waiting for him to “turn things around” anymore. The ship has sailed.